Florida man accused of breaking Mastodon's open-source license with botched social network launch

A Florida man has been accused of breaking the copyleft license of Mastodon by running an online instance of the software without providing its source code as required. And not only that, the real-estate baron and wannabe tech tycoon has been told he has a month to fall in line with the fine print or put himself potentially at …

[Ceyarrecks]

Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

Seriously Excellent! a suburb means of informing of current events, all without using the name of a certain RumpRoast in any part of the article!

[logicalextreme]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

Aye, I'm quite impressed.

[AndrueC]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

a suburb means of informing of current events

Yes I'm glad they didn't go to town on it.

[chivo243]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

Didn't he also dabble in 3rd rate upscale hotels?? I seem to remember a towering failure in Chicago. Or what about Events Planning, there was that awesome gathering at the landscaping company in NJ, just awesome!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

Wasn't there a airline and an university involved too?

[Kernel]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

"Wasn't there a airline and an university involved too?"

Don't forget the bicycle race to rival the Tour de France - the "Tour de $(floridaman)".

https://i.insider.com/5deeb692fd9db20d717828fd

[PRR]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

> there was that awesome gathering at the landscaping company in NJ, just awesome!

Please. That was Pennsylvania, not New Jersey. NJ has its scummy parts but none so bad as that neighborhood.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Excellent Article Format Reg! :D

I'm embarrassed.

I didn't think of it being "that" Florida real-estate baron until I read the comments.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mar-a-OhOh

This is further complicated by the fact that the wannabe tycoon is trying to sell his yet to be implemented (except in test) idea to Digital World Acquisition Company and list it on the Nasdaq stock exchange yielding him tycoonish money but still putting his new public company under Mastodon's rules.

[Mark 85]

Re: Mar-a-OhOh

As I recall, Florida Man wanted to kill off the Section 230 of the FCC's rules in order to silence some of his critics. He's now using that as an excuse for staying on some platforms and suing them.

Given his known method of operation about not paying lawyers, among others, I'm surprised he's able to sue anyone.

[steviebuk]

Re: Mar-a-OhOh

Some lawyers have probably asked for money upfront due to knowing what this person is like.

[swm]

Re: Mar-a-OhOh

My sister, who was an attorney, told me of an older woman who never paid her lawyers. When they sued she found a new set of lawyers to defend her etc. Nobody got paid but the older woman must have had lots of fun.

[tip pc]

Re: Mar-a-OhOh

"My sister, who was an attorney, told me of an older woman who never paid her lawyers. When they sued she found a new set of lawyers to defend her etc. Nobody got paid but the older woman must have had lots of fun."

sounds like sport to me!

[Youngone]

Re: Mar-a-OhOh

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"

[Sorry that handle is already taken.]

Bravo!

That headline is almost the opposite of clickbait

[MiguelC]

Re: Bravo!

I busted out laughing by the fifth paragraph! Second round's on me!

[DS999]

It will be funny to see

The right wing outrage machine once Trump's new social media gets sued over something as communist sounding as a "copyleft"!

[chuBb.]

Re: It will be funny to see

Was going to say same thing

Wonder which OSS license will be the first to prohibit retired golf fan from using or deriving any profit from said code

Also wonder how long until SEC drag the loon over coals

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: be the first to prohibit retired golf fan

Read that as "retarded golf fan". Made more sense that way.

[mcpakold]

Re: It will be funny to see

Funnily enough, most public Mastodon instances are pretty progressive.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: It will be funny to see

Now look what you have gone and done - you mentioned the name that must not be mentioned - I'll have to buy Jake a beer to calm him down when he sees your post.

[Winkypop]

Sims it up succinctly

“a pig defecating on itself”

[Anonymous Coward]

more copyright issues for Florida man

Poor guy. He's ignoring copyright all over the place...

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20211020/11244247783/donald-trump-asserts-fair-use-absolute-immunity-lame-attempt-to-evade-copyright-suit-eddy-grant.shtml

[chivo243]

Re: more copyright issues for Florida man

He thinks executive privilege applies to everything. In fact everything applies to everything, except when it doesn't.

[Youngone]

Re: more copyright issues for Florida man

He is the fellow who styles himself "The 45th president of the United States".

Even sadder than that is the 30% or so of the population of that nation who lap it up.

[Chris G]

As it is a modified version of Mastodon, may suggest a modified name?

MasturDon.

If things end up getting heated over the code it may best to avoid employing lawyers that are prone to melting.

[AlanSh]

How about "Masto(click)bait" :D

[aregross]

Is there...

Lipstick on that pig?

[Kane]

Re: Is there...

"Lipstick on that pig?"

Only if David Cameron is in the room.

[Howard Sway]

Wonder if there's a software developer somewhere...........

Who's just pocketed a lotta bucks for "writing" the code for this site.

"Sure Don, I could make a site like that for you for $5 million!"

[J27]

Re: Wonder if there's a software developer somewhere...........

I doubt it, The Annoying Orange is so cheap that this is most likely a byproduct of him refusing to pay the money actually necessary to build a platform.

[chuBb.]

Re: Wonder if there's a software developer somewhere...........

Probably a wix template...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Wonder if there's a software developer somewhere...........

Mastodon is designed to be easily replicated on other servers, so... click "install Mastodon on this instance", forget to do any of the other work... You, too, can make the same mistake of Florida man.

[waldo kitty]

Re: Wonder if there's a software developer somewhere...........

get that dosh up front, first! no development done at all until the bank account is loaded.

[elsergiovolador]

Florida man eaten by a mastodon.

The animal thought to be extinct turned out to be thriving in the Florida Everglades. The man was hiding away and was deep in the process of breaking the GPL when the animal ambushed him. Unfortunately it is understood that the animal ate the source code too.

[Anonymous Coward]

GOLD!

Hopefully a screenshot of said username & pig picture will soon arrive on Twitter! :)

[Anonymous Coward]

This article is one of the best things I've ever read on the Interwebz!

Florida Man is surely the peak example of that new human subspecies, Home Stultus.

[Will Godfrey]

Very good reporting

About He who should not be named.

[FeepingCreature]

Props to Mastodon

I mean, copyright violation aside, I think this is excellent. Anyone should be able to quickly deploy social infrastructure with minimal reliance on central gatekeeping. In the optimistic world, this leads to a massive boost to Mastodon development. Props to Mastodon!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Would the very stable genius ?

A, Name his free-speech site after the Soviet Union's propaganda red top

B, Make the account creation URL trivial to guess allowing anybody to create accounts named after Famous Floridonians

C, Get sued for copyright violation by the software creators

D, All of the above

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh?

What does any of this have to do with heavy metal? I'm so confused.

[Anonymous Coward]

Florida swamp thing

Wallowing again.

[Nifty]

I like the way this 'Florida man' article appeared appeared next to the one starting 'Japanese bloke'.

[Grunchy]

Why 30 days?

I guess the 30 day period might be part of the published terms. But if not, I’d only give 30 minutes warning. It’s going to court anyway, why not get a jump on things..

[Mad Chaz]

Re: Why 30 days?

Just so they can say they gave a chance to comply and it didn't happen. Then, it becomes obviously intentional infringement.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Why 30 days?

The court would want to see that you'd given a reasonable notice period to correct what the defence would argue to have been an inadvertent oversiight.

[Dave K]

Fantastic!

Brilliantly written article with one of the least click-baity headlines of all time. Have a beer on me!

[rnturn]

Yet another "Oops!"...

... that anyone with a half a brain would have learned from by now.

I'm a little surprised that Florida Man hasn't made any public pronouncements that he knows more about software licensing than anyone else in the world. That's sort of his shtick, after all. Even after having been proved wrong over and over and over.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Yet another "Oops!"...

he knows more about software licensing than anyone else in the world

I think Larry Ellison would disagree

[Jonathan Richards 1]

Re: Yet another "Oops!"...

> knows more about software licensing than anyone else in the world

What's Darl McBride doing these days?

[Pirate Dave]

Re: Yet another "Oops!"...

"What's Darl McBride doing these days?"

Sadly, still breathing.

[disgruntled yank]

Surely he wrote it

Mast o'Don?

[Robert Carnegie]

He doesn't even own much. Including stuff that has his name on it.

Apparently he isn't often referred to as a real estate molehill, and I'd like that to change.

[Swarthy]

Re: He doesn't even own much. Including stuff that has his name on it.

Beautiful!

[Anonymous Coward]

Astonishingly, he DID get investment

As is his habit, he got others to pay for everything and it appears that the the sheer volume of the permanently deluded is large enough for people to put money in it.

That is IMHO a good thing, because puts the people you really ought to avoid all in one club and makes them easy to identify.

What will be even more funny is if this business goes the way of all the other scams Florida man has executed. After all, this is the man wo managed to make a casino fail - in Vegas. It'll be a just reward for his investors, it's not that there isn't a track record going back decades that ought to have been a massive red, nay, orange flag in the first place..

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Astonishingly, he DID get investment

Give the man credit where credit is due.

He managed to fail a casino in Atlantic City too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irk6jGe0DXQ